Rarely Used Procedure Saves 4-Year-Old Boy

Near Drowning Victim Saved By Big Brother, Doctors

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After being pulled from the water by his 7-year-old brother, Evan Martin was rushed to Cook Children's Medical Center, where doctors saved him from possible brain damage by cooling his body to lower than 93 degrees Fahrenheit.

Updated at 5:27 PM CDT on Wednesday, Jun 23, 2010

Evan Martin's mother calls it a miracle. "Just thought I would never get to hold my baby again." says Amy Martin. "I just thought he was dead"

On Sunday, June 13, 2010, 4-year-old Evan and his 7-year-old brother Ethan were with their father at a friend's house in Arlington, playing in the backyard pool. At around 4 p.m., in what seemed like a split second, Evan was floating face down in the nearby hot tub.

Rare Procedure Saves 4-Year-Old

After being pulled from the water by his 7-year-old brother, Evan Martin was rushed to Cook Children's Medical Center, where doctors saved him from possible brain damage by cooling his body to lower than 93 degrees Fahrenheit. (Published Wednesday, June 23, 2010)

His brother Ethan spotted him first. "We saw Evan laying down on the water and I just pulled him right out of the pool" said Ethan. "I was afraid that - it looked like he was dead".

"His father just said that he fell in the pool and he wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't beating," said Amy Martin.

Evan's father performed CPR, and paramedics rushed the child to Cook Children's Medical Center. He was breathing again, but concerned about possible brain damage, doctors tried a procedure normally reserved for infants and adults.

"We had him on a cooling blanket, which has cold water running through it," said Dr. Linda Thompson with Cook Children's. "We had ice packs in his armpits and in his groin, and we were infusing cold water, cold saline into his stomach."

"It helps with swelling in the brain, it slows the brain's metabolism so that it requires less oxygen and less blood flow, less nutrition," said Dr. Thompson.

The procedure, used for only the second time on a child that age at Cook Children's, cooled Evan's body to lower than 93 degrees Fahrenheit for nearly 36 hours.

"Just the first two days we weren't sure if he had total brain damage, a little brain damage, or what," said Martin.

Doctors took another 24 hours to warm him back up. "It seemed like as soon as he woke up, everything was fine," said Brady Nelson, a close family friend.

Evan was back home by the end of the week, playing with his big brother. "It's a miracle that he's here today, it really is," said Martin.